HIGHER EDUCATION AND INEQUALITY

Prerequisites: (SOCI UN1000) Higher education in the U.S. is going through a period of rapid change. State support is shrinking, student debt is increasing, full-time faculty are being replaced by adjuncts, and learning outcomes are difficult to measure, at best. This class will try to makes sense of these changes. Among other questions, it will ask whether higher education is a source of social mobility or a means of class reproduction; how the college experience differs by race, class, and type of college attended; how the economics of higher education have led to more expensive college and more student loans; and how we might make college better. We will consider several different points of view on the current state of U.S. higher education: that of students who apply to and attend college, that of colleges and universities, and that of society at large. As part of this course, students will conduct research on their own universities: Columbia College or Barnard College.

• Department: Sociology
• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Teresa Sharpe
  CULPA: 14 Info
• 4 points

RACE&REPRESENTATION IN ASIAN AMER CINEMA

RACE&REPRSNTATN IN ASAM CINEMA

This seminar focuses on the critical analysis of Asian representation and participation in Hollywood by taking a look at how mainstream American cinema continues to essentialize the Asian and how Asian American filmmakers have responded to Hollywood Orientalist stereotypes. We will analyze various issues confronting the Asian American, including yellowface, white patriarchy, male and female stereotypes, the “model minority” myth, depictions of “Chinatowns,” panethnicity, the changing political interpretations of the term Asian American throughout American history, gender and sexuality, and cultural hegemonies and privileging within the Asian community.

• Department: Ethnicity and Race, Center for
• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Eric Gamalinda
  CULPA: 9 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

LATIN MUSIC AND IDENTITY

LATIN MUSIC AND IDENITY

Latin music has had a historically strained relationship with mainstream music tastes, exploding in occasional boom periods, and receding into invisibility in others. What if this were true because it is a space for hybrid construction of identity that directly reflects a mixture of traditions across racial lines in Latin America? This course will investigate Latin musics transgression of binary views of race in Anglo-American society, even as it directly affects the development of pop music in America. From New Orleans jazz to Texas corridos, salsa, rock, and reggaeton, Latin music acts as both as a soundtrack and a structural blueprint for the 21st centurys multicultural experiment. There will be a strong focus on studying Latin musics political economy, and investigating the story it tells about migration and globalization.

• Department: Ethnicity and Race, Center for
• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Edward Morales
  Info
• 4 points

ARABIC PRISON WRITING

This course studies the genealogy of the prison in Arab culture as manifested in memoirs, narratives, and poems. These cut across a vast temporal and spatial swathe, covering selections from the Quran, Sufi narratives from al-Halllaj oeuvre, poetry by prisoners of war: classical, medieval, and modern. It also studies modern narratives by women prisoners and political prisoners, and narratives that engage with these issues. Arabic prison writing is studied against other genealogies of this prism, especially in the West, to map out the birth of prison, its institutionalization, mechanism, and role. All readings for the course are in English translations.

• Department: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Muhsin Al-Musawi
  CULPA: 8 Info
• 3 points

COLONIZATION/DECOLONIZATION

Prerequisites: Open to CSER majors/concentrators only. Others may be allowed to register with the instructors permission. This course explores the centrality of colonialism in the making of the modern world, emphasizing cross-cultural and social contact, exchange, and relations of power; dynamics of conquest and resistance; and discourses of civilization, empire, freedom, nationalism, and human rights, from 1500 to 2000. Topics include pre-modern empires; European exploration, contact, and conquest in the new world; Atlantic-world slavery and emancipation; and European and Japanese colonialism in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The course ends with a section on decolonization and post-colonialism in the period after World War II. Intensive reading and discussion of primary documents.

• Department: Ethnicity and Race, Center for
• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Natasha J Lightfoot
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 4 points

SLAVERY/ABOLITION-ATLANTC WRLD

This seminar investigates the experiences of slavery and freedom among African-descended people living and laboring in the various parts of the Atlantic World. The course will trace critical aspects of these two major, interconnected historical phenomena with an eye to how specific cases either manifested or troubled broader trends across various slaveholding societies. The first half of the course addresses the history of slavery and the second half pertains to experiences in emancipation. However, since the abolition of slavery occurs at different moments in various areas of the Atlantic World, the course will adhere to a more thematic and less chronological structure, in its examination of the multiple avenues to freedom available in various regions. Weekly units will approach major themes relevant to both slavery and emancipation, such as racial epistemologies among slaveowners/employers, labor regimes in slave and free societies, cultural innovations among slave and freed communities, gendered discourses and sexual relations within slave and free communities, and slaves’ and free people’s resistance to domination. The goal of this course is to broaden students’ comprehension of the history of slavery and freedom, and to promote an understanding of the transition from slavery to freedom in the Americas as creating both continuities and ruptures in the structure and practices of the various societies concerned.

• Department: History
• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Natasha J Lightfoot
  CULPA: 5 Info
• 4 points

TOPICS IN AMERICAN STUDIES

AMER. CULTURAL CRITICISM

Please refer to the Center for American Studies website for course descriptions for each section.
americanstudies.columbia.edu

• Department: American Studies
• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Casey Blake
  CULPA: 22 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

TOPICS IN AMERICAN STUDIES

SUPREME COURT IN AMER HISTORY

Please refer to the Center for American Studies website for course descriptions for each section.
americanstudies.columbia.edu

• Department: American Studies
• M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Benjamin Rosenberg
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

Creative Embedded Systems

CREATIVE EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Ubiquitous computing is creating new canvases and opportunities for creative ideas.
This class explores the use of microprocessors, distributed sensor networks, IoT,
and intermedia systems for the purposes of creative expression. The course is delivered
in a mixed lecture and lab format that introduces the fundamental concepts
and theory behind embedded systems as well as issues particular to their creative
employment. The key objective of the course is for students to conceive of and
implement creative uses of computation.

• Department: Computer Science @Barnard
• TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Tiffany Tseng
  Info
• 3 points

Psychology/Neuroscience Senior Thesis Ad

Advanced Research Seminar

The seminar component of the Psych/Neuro Senior Thesis Advanced Research program. Students admitted to the research program should plan to take this seminar in the spring of their junior year and in the fall and spring semesters of their senior year. Students are expected to be working in a lab as part of their participation in this program. In addition to supporting students throughout their independent research project, this seminar will introduce students to some of the big questions in the field through its connection with the Psychology Department Colloquium and will train students in reading and evaluating scientific research and communicating their own research findings.

• Department: Psychology
• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Larisa H Solomon
  Info
• 1-3 points

Life at the End of Life: Palliative Care

Life at the End of Life (LATEOL) is a seminar designed to provide opportunities for readings and reflections on the experience of volunteer service work. Students will learn how to critically reflect on their experiences working with patients in the context of questions raised in the texts read in the seminar. Students will develop the skills necessary to critically reflect on the significance of emotional care as a medical practitioner, as well as form a deeper understanding of the role of palliative care and comfort care in a life cycle of care.

The fieldwork component of the course is met by the student’s continued direct service work during the course itself. Students participating in the seminar will volunteer
weekly at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center
. Through this, students will provide emotional support and assistance, and serve as a consistent presence for someone experiencing chronic illness, disability, or the end of life. At the core of this framework is the patient; however, it is important to consider the impact this volunteer service will have on the student and Columbia. Therefore, the following specific goals and objectives are outlined to benefit each individual and group involved in this service relationship.

• Department: Comparative Literature and Society, Institute for
• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Paul Rezkalla
  Info
• 4 points

CLIM CHNG/GLOBAL MIGR/HUM RGT

While the existence of processes of anthropogenic climate change is well established, predictions regarding the future consequences of these processes are far less certain. In no area is the uncertainty regarding near and long term effects as pronounced as in the question of how climate change will affect global migration. This course will address the issue of climate migration in four ways. First, the course will examine the theoretical and empirical literatures that have elucidated the nature of international migration in general. Second, the course will consider the phenomena of anthropogenic climate change as it relates to migration. Third, the course will consider how human rights and other legal regimes do or do not address the humanitarian issues created by anthropogenic climate change. Fourth, the course will synthesize these topics by considering how migration and climate change has arisen as a humanitarian, political, and economic issue in the Pacific. Human Rights elective.

• Department: Anthropology @Barnard
• W 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: J.C. Salyer
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

INDEPENDENT STUDY

Prerequisites: the department chairs permission. (Formerly R3932)

• Department: Visual Arts
• Instructor: Matthew E Buckingham
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: David A Cruz
  Info
• Instructor: Delphine A Fawundu
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Jon Kessler
  CULPA: 5 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Naeem Mohaiemen
  Wikipedia h-index: 8 Info
• Instructor: Sable Smith
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Tomas Vu Daniel
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 1-3 points

The American Graphic Novel

The course seeks to combine literary and historical approaches to investigate one of the most rapidly growing, increasingly influential, and, increasingly, critically recognized forms of American popular literature: the graphic novel. A historical overview of the medium’s development, complete with analysis of relevant broader institutional and cultural factors illuminating the development of American media culture more generally, will be complemented by study of a series of recent works illuminating the medium’s explosive maturation. Authors read include Eisner, Crumb, Spiegelman, Bechdel, Thompson, and Hernandez.

• Department: American Studies
• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• 4 points

SOCIOLOGY OF THE BODY

This seminar examines the ways in which the body is discursively constituted, and itself serves as the substratum for social life. Key questions include: How are distinctions made between normal and pathological bodies, and between the psychic and somatic realms? How do historical forces shape bodily experience? How do bodies that are racialized, gendered, and classed offer resistance to social categorization?

• Department: Sociology @Barnard
• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Elizabeth Bernstein
  CULPA: 27 Info
• 4 points

Seeking Sanctuary in New York City

In a renewed age of anti-immigrant fervor, the last few years have seen attention focused on people seeking asylum – the process under international law by which people fleeing persecution can seek protection in a country not of their citizenship. New York has become a particular flashpoint with a large influx of asylum seekers, most of them from Latin America. Often, they have arrived on buses sent here by southern governors intending to make the border “problem” that of a so-called “sanctuary city.” How has New York responded? And how does this fit into the city’s long history of refuge? 

This course will offer students an introduction to the theory, ethics, and history of the idea of international protection. We will look specifically at how Latin American citizens have engaged with the US asylum system over time and how this engagement has changed the shape of US immigration laws. We will study the origins of the ideas of international protection, who is understood to qualify and why, how the system has changed over time, and what these developments mean for a broader understanding of human rights across borders. We will also take a critical look at asylum, examine ideas of deservingness and innocence and their intersection with categories of race, class and gender, and question what it means for certain people to be constructed as victims and others to be seen as not eligible – or worthy – of protection.

This is an engaged pedagogy course. The class will be organized around a close collaboration with a NY legal organization that has taken on the work of representing many asylum seekers in the city. Students will learn the complexities of US asylum law and will work collectively to use this knowledge, while developing their research skills, to put together reports to be used in active asylum cases.

• Department: Human Rights (HRTB)
• TR 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Jennifer Trowbridge
  Info
• 5 points

HELLENISM&THE TOPOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION

This course examines the way particular spaces—cultural, urban, literary—serve as sites for the production and reproduction of cultural and political imaginaries. It places particular emphasis on the themes of the polis, the city, and the nation-state as well as on spatial representations of and responses to notions of the Hellenic across time. Students will consider a wide range of texts as spaces—complex sites constituted and complicated by a multiplicity of languages—and ask: To what extent is meaning and cultural identity, sitespecific? How central is the classical past in Western imagination? How have great metropolises such as Paris, Istanbul, and New York fashioned themselves in response to the allure of the classical and the advent of modern Greece? How has Greece as a specific site shaped the study of the Cold War, dictatorships, and crisis?

• Department: Classics
• T 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Dimitris Antoniou
  h-index: 5 Info
• 3 points

American Journalism and Democracy

AMER JOURNALISM & DEMOCRA

The traditional role of the media in our democracy -- to support an informed electorate -- has been disrupted in the 21st century by technological change, transforming the delivery of information and opinion in radical ways. Partisanship has soared, along with a collapse of the shared fact base. In this course we examine the current state of political and election coverage, in counterpoint with iconic pieces of political reporting and media analysis that offer perspective and highlight turning points in the history of American journalism.

With the shrinking role of the legacy news media and the explosion of new formats and platforms, the concept of "objectivity" has lost value. We explore the impact of novel news sources and styles of expression, the impact of algorithms that prioritize emotional engagement, the decline of trust in the media, and the scourge of misinformation. What is the future of independent journalism? And how are these profound changes in news consumption affecting the decisions that voters make?

• Department: American Studies
• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Caroline Miller
  Info
• 4 points

ANIME EFFECT: JAPANESE MEDIA

Culture, technology, and media in contemporary Japan. Theoretical and ethnographic engagements with forms of mass mediation, including anime, manga, video, and cell-phone novels. Considers larger global economic and political contexts, including post-Fukushima transformations. Prerequisites: the instructor's permission.

• Department: Anthropology
• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Marilyn Ivy
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Senior Pro Seminar

SENIOR PRO SEMINAR

This course is a seminar for seniors to either write a formal proposal for a capstone project or to begin the research process for a Senior Thesis, which will be written in the Spring semester. This interdisciplinary course provides the necessary structure needed to complete either goal. This will be an interactive class in which students are required to participate and actively engage in each meeting.

• Department: African American and African Diaspora
• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Farah Griffin
  CULPA: 10 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Free Speech in American Society

Free Speech in Amer Socie

In the contemporary USA, free speech is often understood as a legal doctrine or a branch of Constitutional Law. But it can also be understood as a tradition, a way of life, part of American culture. In this seminar, we will explore the hypothesis that America’s free speech tradition has been shaped primarily by people who aren’t lawyers or lawmakers: by beatniks, pamphleteers, abolitionists, Red Power activists, queers, feminists and Free Lovers, poets, preachers, and hackers. People from all these groups have shaped America’s free speech tradition from the sixteenth century to the present day, although they’re usually omitted from Constitution-centered histories of free speech because they weren’t lawyers or parties to lawsuits.

This course provides a transnational, cultural perspective on free speech history that decenters the First Amendment from its quasi-sacrosanct place in the historiography of American liberty. Instead of looking at legal arguments and decisions, we will survey the very wide range of social contexts in which struggles over free speech have taken place in American history, from the  Pueblo Revolt in seventeenth-century New Mexico to the rise of MAGA in our own time. We’ll seek to understand how, starting in the twentieth century, “free speech” and “the First Amendment” became practically synonymous, with the result that most contemporary Americans know very little about the history of free expression in this country. And we’ll ask what (if anything) gives America’s four-hundred-year-old free speech tradition its unity and coherence.

• Department: American Studies
• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Ryan Carr
  Info
• 4 points

Life on Mars: Building a New Society in

Life on Mars: Society & S

This course explores the interdisciplinary challenges of establishing a human society on Mars. Students explore a number of challenges that are involved in reaching the Red Planet and setting up a functional social habitat for the long term. This includes both the numerous logistical hurdles of traveling to and surviving on Mars, as well as the social, political, and ethical considerations of establishing a new society on the planet. Through analysis and discussion of scientific research, social science texts, and popular media, students will gain a deep understanding of the physiological, psychological, and strategic challenges of long-duration space travel and human habitation on another planet.

The course is not scientific or overly technical in nature. Instead, the perspective being adopted is that of a social scientist seeking to understand how humans can travel to another planet and live together. The first half of the course focuses on the practical, physiological, and psychological challenges of traveling to and surviving on Mars while maintaining contact withEarth. In the first part of the course, students will study the unique environmental conditions of Mars, the health risks of space travel, and how to maintain communication and connectivity with Earth despite vast distances. Students will also engage with how sustainable living on Mars—through food, energy, and resource management—could shape the future of human expansion in space.

The second half delves into the complexities of building social, legal, and economic systems in a new extraterrestrial society. Students will critically evaluate how to create a self-sustaining, functional civilization on Mars. Given the social science focus of the class, there will be emphasis placed on topics such as governance, establishing social contracts and property rights, and building economic systems for an entirely new world.

This course is meant to attract a small group of 10-15 students interested in space exploration. The small size and intensive four-hour class format is intended to foster creative problem-solving and interdisciplinary thinking (see below for discussion of non-traditional format). By the end of the course, students will not only understand the practicalities of space colonization but also develop skills in envisioning and designing innovative solutions for humanity’s future beyond Earth.

• Department: Sociology
• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Sudhir A Venkatesh
  CULPA: 11 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Global Artivisms

Presently, there is a an increasingly hardening of frameworks to describe, understand, and relate to social, political, and cultural changes. This environment often inhibits people and communities from developing nuanced vocabularies to act upon an increasingly complex realities, including rising economic inequality, growing migration, and climate change.

Since at least the late nineteenth century, one path to generating new frames and vocabularies has been what we now call “artivism.” The term is a neologism from the 1990s, when artists increasingly employed artistic practices to make public or “activist” interventions in institutions, debates, and other contexts where existing strategies had become ineffective or stale.

In this course, we will examine the emergence, limits, and potential of “artivism” as a praxis. Through case studies from the United States and other parts of the world, the course will explore a range of questions, including: What is artivism? Is it simply art that is activist, or is it a different conception of art and activism? Why did this praxis emerge and extend in most of the world? What are some of artivism’s effects? How has the expansion of the Internet change artivism and artivists?

• Department: Ethnicity and Race, Center for
• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Frances Negron-Muntaner
  CULPA: 18 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

Black Americans Abroad

This course focuses on the long history of Black Americans going (and sometimes returning from) abroad. Our exploration will unfold chronologically from the 19th century to the present day, as we trace our subjects’ myriad reasons for setting out beyond their country’s shores. Each week of the course will be devoted to grappling with a set of travelers and international departures characteristic of a given era, including:


Enslaved people’s quests for freedom

Entertainers, creatives, and scientists’ pursuit of professional opportunities during the era of Jim Crow

Scholars, journalists, and diplomats’ search for knowledge and cultural understanding

Modern nomads and expats’ journeys of self-actualization


Our goal is to consider Black Americans’ evolving relationship to the United States and the world at large.

• Department: Africana Studies (AFSB)
• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Tamara Walker
  Info
• 4 points

SUPERVISED INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH

1-4 points. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: the instructors permission. Except by special permission of the director of undergraduate studies, no more than 4 points of individual research may be taken in any one term. This includes both PSYC UN3950 and PSYC UN3920. No more than 8 points ofPSYC UN3950 may be applied toward the psychology major, and no more than 4 points toward the concentration. Readings, special laboratory projects, reports, and special seminars on contemporary issues in psychological research and theory.

• Department: Psychology
• Instructor: Ana Alexandrescu
  Info
• Instructor: Dima Amso
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 31 Info
• Instructor: Christopher Baldassano
  h-index: 13 Info
• Instructor: Niall Bolger
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 55 Info
• Instructor: Natalie Brito
  Info
• Instructor: Sarah Demoya
  Info
• Instructor: Geraldine Downey
  CULPA: 9 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Elif A Duman
  Info
• Instructor: Katherine T Fox-Glassman
  CULPA: 6 h-index: 4 Info
• Instructor: Jon B Freeman
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Carl Hart
  CULPA: 43 Wikipedia h-index: 54 Info
• Instructor: Tory Higgins
  CULPA: 23 Wikipedia h-index: 134 Info
• Instructor: Nora Isacoff
  CULPA: 1 Info
• Instructor: Sheena Iyengar
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Nikolaus Kriegeskorte
  h-index: 56 Info
• Instructor: Chujun Lin
  Info
• Instructor: Patricia G Lindemann
  CULPA: 64 Info
• Instructor: Bianca J Marlin
  Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Janet Metcalfe
  CULPA: 31 h-index: 70 Info
• Instructor: Meghan Meyer
  Info
• Instructor: Michael W Morris
  h-index: 68 Info
• Instructor: Kevin Ochsner
  CULPA: 12 h-index: 86 Info
• Instructor: Valerie J Purdie-Greenaway
  Wikipedia h-index: 29 Info
• Instructor: Daphna Shohamy
  CULPA: 10 h-index: 47 Info
• Instructor: Rae Silver
  Wikipedia h-index: 69 Info
• Instructor: Larisa H Solomon
  Info
• Instructor: Yaakov Stern
  Wikipedia h-index: 160 Info
• Instructor: Herbert S Terrace
  CULPA: 29 Wikipedia Info
• Instructor: Nim L Tottenham
  Info
• 0-4 points

Computational Models of Decision-Making

Comp Models of Decision-M

We make decisions countless times a day. Computational models have been developed that improve our understanding of how these decisions are made. This course is organized in three parts: perceptual decision-making, value-based decision-making, and computational psychiatry. In part one, perceptual decision-making, we will focus on computational models that can capture and explain decisions in perception, such as categorizing an orientation, or discriminating the direction of moving dots, or estimating the magnitude of a stimulus (e.g., time). We will start by laying the foundations of signal detection theory and Bayesian inference under uncertainty and build to models that incorporate confidence ratings and reaction times. In part two, value-based decision-making, we will move on to decisions that incorporate our values (e.g., ‘Should I go out or stay in and study?’, ‘Should I eat a burger or a salad?’). We will learn the basics of a computational modeling framework that captures how we learn values from rewards and punishments, reinforcement learning, as well as about model-free and model-based learning. Lastly, we will learn how impairments in decision-making that occur in psychopathology (e.g., addiction, anorexia nervosa, anxiety) have been conceptualized and quantified in the relatively new field of computational psychiatry.

• Department: Cognitive Science @Barnard
• F 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Andra L Mihali
  Info
• 4 points

UNDERGRADUATE SEMINARS I

Prerequisites: Two years of calculus, at least one year of additional mathematics courses, and the director of undergraduate studies permission. The subject matter is announced at the start of registration and is different in each section. Each student prepares talks to be given to the seminar, under the supervision of a faculty member or senior teaching fellow.

• Department: Mathematics
• MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
• Instructor: Chiu-Chu Liu
  CULPA: 1 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points

COMPARATIVE POLITICS SEMINAR

POWER, ORGS & INSTITUTION

Prerequisites: POLS V1501 or the equivalent, and the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Please see here for detailed seminar registration guidelines: http://polisci.columbia.edu/undergraduate-programs/seminar-registration-guidelines. Seminar in Comparative Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Junyan Jiang
  h-index: 8 Info
• 4 points

COMPARATIVE POLITICS SEMINAR

INFORMATION MEDIA POL BEHAV

Prerequisites: POLS V1501 or the equivalent, and the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Please see here for detailed seminar registration guidelines: http://polisci.columbia.edu/undergraduate-programs/seminar-registration-guidelines. Seminar in Comparative Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: John Marshall
  h-index: 20 Info
• 4 points

COMPARATIVE POLITICS SEMINAR

Prerequisites: POLS V1501 or the equivalent, and the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Please see here for detailed seminar registration guidelines: http://polisci.columbia.edu/undergraduate-programs/seminar-registration-guidelines. Seminar in Comparative Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Marjorie Castle
  Info
• Instructor: Gemma Dipoppa
  Info
• 4 points

SENIOR RESEARCH SEMINAR

Prerequisites: Course open to Barnard Art History majors only. Independent research for the senior thesis. Students develop and write their senior thesis in consultation with an individual faculty adviser in art history and participate in group meetings scheduled throughout the senior year.

• Department: Art History @Barnard
• R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
• Instructor: Elizabeth Hutchinson
  CULPA: 9 Info
• 3 points

How Race Gets Under Our Skin: The Sociol

RACE, HEALTH, AND BIOMEDI

One of the glaring forms of inequalities that persists today is the race-based gap in access to health care, quality of care, and health outcomes. This course examines how institutionalized racism and the structure of health care contributes to the neglect and sometimes abuse of racial and ethnic minorities. Quite literally, how does race affect one’s life chances? This course covers a wide range of topics related to race and health, including: racial inequalities in health outcomes, biases in medical institutions, immigration status and health, racial profiling in medicine, and race in the genomic era.

• Department: Sociology @Barnard
• M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Domonique M Reed
  Info
• 4 points

HONORS THESIS SEMINAR PART 1

Prerequisites: minimum GPA of 3.5 in MESAAS courses. The MESAAS honors seminar offers students the opportunity to undertake a sustained research project under close faculty supervision. The DUS advises on general issues of project design, format, approach, general research methodologies, and timetable. In addition, students work with an individual advisor who has expertise in the area of the thesis and can advise on the specifics of method and content. The thesis will be jointly evaluated by the adviser, the DUS, and the honors thesis TA. The DUS will lead students through a variety of exercises that are directly geared to facilitating the thesis. Students build their research, interpretive, and writing skills; discuss methodological approaches; write an annotated bibliography; learn to give constructive feedback to peers and respond to feedback effectively. The final product is a polished research paper in the range of 40-60 pages. Please note: This is a one-year course that begins in the fall semester (1 point) and continues through the spring semester (3 points). Only students who have completed both semesters will receive the full 4 points of credit.

• Department: Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies
• 1 points

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS SEMINAR

POL OF TRADE AID & INVESTMENT

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• R 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Allison J Carnegie
  Info
• 4 points

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS SEMINAR

TERRORISM

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Virginia Page Fortna
  CULPA: 5 Wikipedia h-index: 17 Info
• 4 points

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS SEMINAR

SOLVING GLOBAL PROBLEMS

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Giulio M Gallarotti
  Info
• 4 points

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS SEMINAR

CONFLICT & INT'L INSTITUTIONS

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• Instructor: Linda M Kirschke
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS SEMINAR

CAUSES OF WAR

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Zachary C Shirkey
  CULPA: 1 Info
• 4 points

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS SEMINAR

SECURITY TOPICS

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Jack L Snyder
  CULPA: 27 Info
• 4 points

INTERNATIONAL POLITICS SEMINAR

INEQUALITY WITHIN&BTWN NATIONS

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list.

• Department: Political Science
• W 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: David E Spiro
  CULPA: 1 h-index: 6 Info
• 4 points

Asian Americans and the Law

Asian Americans and the Law invites students to examine how U.S. law has shaped the experiences of Asian Americans for nearly 150 years by pairing landmark legal cases with evidence‑based social science research. The course traces a sweeping arc from Chinese Exclusion Acts and Japanese American incarceration to contemporary debates over immigration, affirmative action, and workplace discrimination. By the end of the course, students will gain a broader understanding for the ways in which law operates as a force that structures social life, opportunities, constraints, belonging, and exclusion.

• Department: Sociology
• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Jennifer Lee
  CULPA: 2 Wikipedia Info
• 4 points

ART CRITICISM

This seminar explores contemporary art criticism written by artists, with a special focus on how their ideas help us understand today’s visual culture—across galleries, social media, digital platforms, and public space. You do 
not
 need to be an Art History or Visual Arts major to take part in this course. Students from all backgrounds are welcome, and the class aims to provide accessible entry points into thinking about art, images, and culture. Artist-writers approach criticism differently from academic scholars or journalists: rather than treating artworks as distant objects of study or market commodities, they write from inside the processes, politics, and lived experiences that shape artistic production. Their essays often address urgent questions about identity, power, technology, and representation. Many use new media—video, performance, social platforms, and digital images—to expose how culture is made and circulated today. Others directly examine issues of class, racism, gender, labor, and equity, helping us understand how art both reflects and challenges broader social conventions. Throughout the semester, we will read and discuss writings by artists such as Adrian Piper, Martha Rosler, Andrea Fraser, Renée Green, Walead Beshty, Hito Steyerl, Hannah Black, and others who have transformed the field by confronting structures of inequality, interrogating institutions, and using critical writing as a form of artistic practice. Their work opens questions that resonate far beyond the art world. How do images shape public opinion and social movements? Who gets to speak and be seen in contemporary culture? What counts as “authorship” or “truth” in the age of digital reproduction? How can creative practices address histories of exclusion or imagine more equitable futures? Each week, we will focus on a single artist, pairing discussion of their writing with a presentation of their artwork. Assignments will give you practice reading closely, writing clearly, and developing your own critical voice. Whether or not you plan to pursue art-related fields, the analytical skills you’ll gain—interpreting images, unpacking arguments, understanding cultural systems—will be valuable for thinking about the media-saturated world we live in. The course fosters a collaborative, discussion-based environment where all students can participate fully and bring diverse perspectives to our conversations.

• Department: Art History @Barnard
• T 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: John Miller
  CULPA: 2 Info
• 4 points

METHODS & THEORIES OF ART HIST

Prerequisites: Barnard Art History Major Requirement. Enrollment limited only to Barnard Art History majors. Introduction to critical writings that have shaped histories of art, including texts on iconography and iconology, the psychology of perception, psychoanalysis, social history, feminism and gender studies, structuralism, semiotics, and post-structuralism.

• Department: Art History @Barnard
• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Alexander Alberro
  CULPA: 12 h-index: 17 Info
• 4 points

Introduction to Genocide Studies

Intro to Genocide Studies

This course provides students with an introduction to the study of genocide. 

In this class, we will take a
critical approach
to understanding genocide, meaning:


we will try to avoid easy moralizing and distancing of genocide;

we won’t take existing legal and political definitions of genocide for granted; and

we will think about
power
in relation to genocide perpetration and prevention.


Our strategy will be
interdisciplinary
, meaning:


we will explore the ways historians, psychologist, lawyers, political scientists, and others have tried to understand genocide; and

we will reflect on the limits on what and how we can know about genocide as a human experience.


This course aspires to be
practical
and
applied
, meaning


this course fundamentally
anti-genocidal
in its purpose, and

students will have the opportunity to contribute to and/or develop practical efforts commemorate, advocate against, or prevent the perpetration of genocide.

• Department: Institute for Study of Human Rights
• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Glenn Mitoma
  Info
• 3 points

POST-BACCALAUREATE SEMINAR

This seminar aims to provide students in the post-baccalaureate certificate program with opportunities 1) to (re-)familiarize themselves with a selection of major texts from classical antiquity, which will be read in English, 2) to become acquainted with scholarship on these texts and with scholarly writing in general, 3) to write analytically about these texts and the interpretations posed about them in contemporary scholarship, and 4) to read in the original language selected passages of one of the texts in small tutorial groups, which will meet every week for an additional hour with members of the faculty.

• Department: Classics
• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Gareth Williams
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

POST-BACCALAUREATE SEMINAR

This seminar aims to provide students in the post-baccalaureate certificate program with opportunities 1) to (re-)familiarize themselves with a selection of major texts from classical antiquity, which will be read in English, 2) to become acquainted with scholarship on these texts and with scholarly writing in general, 3) to write analytically about these texts and the interpretations posed about them in contemporary scholarship, and 4) to read in the original language selected passages of one of the texts in small tutorial groups, which will meet every week for an additional hour with members of the faculty.

• Department: Classics
• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Gareth Williams
  CULPA: 7 Info
• 3 points

Crime and Policing

This course will introduce students to the literature on crime and policing. Readings for the course will be from a broad range of disciplines, including sociology, criminology, law, and public policy.  Most weeks, the readings will include relevant “popular press” articles that will help situate the literature in the context of current debates. The course is organized in two parts. The first half will focus on the problems of crime and violence in urban environments. We will review classic and modern ideas and theories explaining crime and violence, and we will look at the evidence describing patterns and trends in crime in recent history. The second half of the course will focus on the approaches to confront crime and violence, with a strong emphasis on policing. We will review the literature on the relationship between crime and policing, and we will learn about the impact that policing practices have on individuals and their communities.

• Department: Sociology
• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Gerard Torrats-Espinosa
  h-index: 6 Info
• 4 points

CURATORIAL POSTNS 1969-PRES

Contemporary exhibitions studied through a selection of great shows from roughly 1969 to the present that defined a generation. This course will not offer practical training in curating; rather it will concentrate on the historical context of exhibitions, the theoretical basis for their argument, the criteria for the choice in artists and their work, and exhibitions internal/external reception.

• Department: Art History @Barnard
• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Valerie Smith
  Info
• 4 points

ASTROSTATISTICS

Astronomers live in era of “big data”.
Whilst astronomers of a century ago collected a handful
of photographic plates each night, modern astronomers
collect thousands of images encoded by millions of
pixels in the same time. Both the volume of data and the
ever present desire to dig deeper into data sets has led
to a growing interest in the use of statistical methods to
interpret observations. This class will provide an
introduction to the methods commonly used in
understanding astronomical data sets, both in terms of
theory and application. It is one six classes the
department offers every fourth semester.

• Department: Astronomy
• TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
• Instructor: David Kipping
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 44 Info
• 3 points

Race, Discrimination, and Racial Inequal

Race, Dscrmttion, Rac Inq

This course focuses on race, discrimination, and racial inequalities. The course will address three key questions: (1) What is race as perceived in the U.S. and Europe, and what are the sources of racial inequalities? (2) What does social science research tell us about patterns and trends of racial inequalities? (3) What policies can alleviate racial inequalities? The course will systematically adopt comparative perspectives focusing on the North American and European contexts. We will also address research on race and racial inequality within an interdisciplinary lens particularly building on sociology, economics, and social psychology.

This course is designed for advanced undergraduate students from Columbia University and Science Po (Paris). We aim for a class of 30 students (15 from each partner university). Class will take place once a week (for 2 hours). In addition, the Columbia TA will conduct a discussion section once a week in which Columbia and Sciences Po students will work together in small groups on class projects that will be presented over the course of the semester. The classes will be organized in a hybrid format. In each campus, the professor will teach his/her class in person and the two classes will be connected via Zoom. The Columbia and Science Po professors will thus co-teach a virtually connected class. The professors will closely coordinate and alternate in leading the lecture and discussion parts of each class.

• Department: Sociology
• R 10:10 a.m.-noon
• 4 points

Senior Thesis Seminar I

This seminar is an opportunity to do original sociological research with the support of a faculty member, a teaching assistant, and your fellow classmates. Over the next two semesters you will formulate a research question; design a research strategy; collect and analyze data; and write up your findings. At the end of the academic year, you will submit a completed thesis.

The class is intended as scaffolding to support you in what can sometimes feel like a lonely and disorienting process. The goal is to balance structure to facilitate your work with freedom to develop your projects independently.

This seminar is open only to Sociology majors. Please email the professor for permission to join the course.

• Department: Sociology
• R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Tara Gonsalves
  Info
• 4 points

APPROACHES TO E ASIAN STUDIES

This course is intended to provide a focal point for undergraduate majors in East Asian Studies. It introduces students to the analysis of particular objects of East Asian historical, literary, and cultural studies from various disciplinary perspectives. The syllabus is composed of a series of modules, each centered around an object, accompanied by readings that introduce different ways of understanding its meaning.

• Department: East Asian Languages and Cultures
• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Robert P Hymes
  CULPA: 8 Info
• 4 points

SENIOR PROJ:RESEARCH FOR MUSIC

Working with her advisor, a student will expand the research project initiated in the Fall Senior Seminar for Music Majors (BC3992x). In order to satisfy the requirement, the student will complete a fifty page research paper.

• Department: Music @Barnard
• Instructor: Gail R Archer
  CULPA: 24 Info
• 3 points

SENIOR SEMINAR

This course is a requirement for all majors and is taken in the 
Fall
 semester of the Senior year; students may register for the Barnard or Columbia (3991) section. In this academic writing workshop students develop individual research projects under the guidance of the course’s instructor and in dialogue with the other participants’ projects. The final assignment of the senior seminar (6000 words) is the 
senior essay
. It is written in Spanish.

• Department: Spanish and Latin American Culture
• W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Wadda Rios-Font
  CULPA: 4 h-index: 8 Info
• 4 points

SENIOR SEM-COMP LIT & SOCIETY

Prerequisites: CPLS UN3900 The senior seminar is a capstone course required of all CLS/MedHum majors and CLS concentrations. Only ICLS students may register. The seminar provides students the opportunity to discuss selected topics in comparative literature and society and medical humanities in a cross-disciplinary, multilingual, and global perspective. Students undertake individual research projects while participating in directed readings and critical dialogues about theory and research methodologies, which may culminate in the senior thesis. Students review work in progress and share results through weekly oral reports and written reports.

• Department: Comparative Literature and Society, Institute for
• T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Bruno Bosteels
  Wikipedia h-index: 21 Info
• 3 points

THESIS RESEARCH SEMINAR

Guided, independent, indepth research experience culminating in the senior essay. Weekly meetings are held to review work in progress, to share results through oral and written reports, and to consider career options for further work in this field.

• Department: Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
• R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Matthew I Palmer
  CULPA: 5 h-index: 14 Info
• 3 points

Advanced Topics in German Literature

Heinrich von Kleist

"Advanced Topics in German Literature” is open to seniors and other advanced undergraduate students who have taken Intro to German Literature (GERM 3333) or an equivalent class. The seminar provides students the opportunity to closely examine a topic from a variety of perspectives and theoretical approaches. Readings and discussion in German. The course is repeatable for credit.

• Department: Germanic Languages
• W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Instructor: Dorothea von Muecke
  Info
• 3 points

SENIOR PROJ: MUSIC REPERTORY

Working with her advisor, a student will develop a vocal or instrumental recital program with representative musical works from a variety of historical periods. In order to satisfy the requirement, the student will present an hour long public performance of the recital program. Students may also satisfy this requirement by composing original vocal or instrumental works.

• Department: Music @Barnard
• Instructor: Gail R Archer
  CULPA: 24 Info
• 3 points

SENIOR PROJECT IN CREATIVE WRITING

SENIOR PROJ: CREATIVE WRI

Enrollment limited to Barnard senior English majors with a concentration in creative writing.

This creative writing workshop represents an opportunity for creative writing concentrators to focus on one large project that will serve as a capstone senior project. As in a typical writing workshop, much of the focus will be on sharing and critiquing student work. Unlike other workshops, in this class students will focus on building out a longer project—such as a more ambitious full-length story for fiction and creative nonfiction writers and a chapbook for poets. This means students will discuss work by writers who may not share their own genre. We will focus on generating new work, developing your writing process, and creating new possibilities and momentum for your piece, as well as trying to create a sense of community among the concentrators. We will also conduct in-class writing exercises in response to short reading assignments and class lectures. Students should be aware of two important notes: (1) This class is limited to senior English majors who have already been approved to be creative writing concentrators; and (2) this course fulfills the requirement for concentrators to finish a senior project, but not the academic senior seminar requirement. This class is about your own writing and that of your classmates. This class will be what you make of it!

• Department: English @Barnard
• M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
• Instructor: Ken Chen
  Info
• 4 points

SENIOR SEM FOR MUSIC MAJORS

The goals of this seminar are a) to introduce senior music majors to ethnographic, bibliographic, and archival research methods in music and b) to help the same students develop, focus, implement, draft, revise, and polish a substantive, original piece of research (25-30 pages) which will serve as the senior project. The course will begin with a survey of academic literature on key problems in musicological research and writing, and will progress to a workshop/discussion format in which each week a different student is responsible for assigning readings and leading the discussion on a topic which s/he has formulated and deemed to be of relevance to her own research.

• Department: Music @Barnard
• W 10:10 a.m.-noon
• Instructor: Lauren E Ninoshvili
  CULPA: 4 Info
• 4 points

URBAN STUDIES SENIOR SEMINAR

Prerequisites: Senior standing. Year-long course; participation is for two consecutive terms. No new students admitted for spring. Emphasizes the study of the built environment of cities and suburbs, and the related debates. Readings, class presentations, and written work culminate in major individual projects, under the supervision of faculty trained in architecture, urban design, or urban planning.

• Department: Urban Studies @Barnard
• W 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
• Instructor: Mary Rocco
  CULPA: 2 Info
• Instructor: Christian Siener
  CULPA: 1 Info
• Instructor: Andreina Torres Angarita
  Info
• 4 points

EBHS SENIOR THESIS SEMINAR

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission and senior standing as a major or concentrator in The Evolutionary Biology of the Human Species (EBHS). Year-long seminar in which senior EBHS majors develop a research project and write a senior thesis. Regular meetings are held to discuss research and writing strategies,review work in progress, and share results through oral and written reports.

• Department: Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology
• R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
• Instructor: Jill S Shapiro
  CULPA: 46 Info
• 3 points

SENIOR THESIS/TUTORIAL

Prerequisites: the faculty advisers permission. Senior thesis or tutorial project consisting of independent scholarly work in an area of study of the student’s choosing, under the supervision of a member of the faculty.

• Department: Italian
• Instructor: Teodolinda Barolini
  CULPA: 7 Wikipedia Info
• 3 points